All CLIMB VMs will be shelved on 28th August

As we need to release enough capacity on CLIMB to allow new and existing users to launch new VMs over the next months, we will periodically “shelve” (for the meaning see the FAQ session here below) all VMs, starting from 28th August.

All CLIMB VMs will be shelved on Tuesday, August 28, 2018.

By that date, you will have an “unshelving” functionality added to bryn, which will allow active users to restore the VMs they wish to continue using soon after the shelving.

What does “shelving and “unshelving” mean?
“Shelving” means stopping your VM and any attached volumes) while simultaneously making a snapshot of it. This means that all your data and software remain intact within the snapshot, but while the VM is shelved, it is not using CPU capacity or RAM.
“Unshelving” makes the VM active again, restoring it from the snapshot to precisely the same state that it was when it was shelved (including the same IP address).

How can a shelved VM be unshelved?
By August 24, we will have added “unshelving” functionality to Bryn enabling you to unshelve VMs for yourself soon after they have been shelved.

What should I do if I don’t want a VM to be shelved on 28th August?
We appreciate that there may be a few rare examples of people running very long jobs that straddle that date, so we are prepared to spare VMs from the default shelving process, but only if you let us know the IP address of the VM in advance.
If you want a VM to be kept active during the shelving process, please use the link above to communicate the IP address of the VM to be spared.

Why are we doing this?
By periodically shelving all VMs and then asking users to unshelve them, we will release additional capacity that would otherwise be tied up in VMs that are taking up resource but are no longer being used.